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REPORT 



G- K. Gilbert, 



ON THE 



Methods of Surveying the Public Domain, 



TO THE 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, 



AT THE 



BEQUEST OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



By J. W. POWELL, 
1878. 



WASHINGTON; 
aOTEKNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

18 78. 



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U- S. £e<> £-r3-)0 



EEPOET 



OX THE 



Methods of Surveying the Public Domain, 



TO THE 



SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, 



EEQUEST OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



By J. W. POWELL, 

1878. 



WASHINGTON ....... 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING * OFFICE. 

1878. 



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MOV 8 1904 
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EEPOET 



ON THE 



METHODS OF SURVEYING THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. 



Department of the Interior, 
U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey 

of the Rocky Mountain Region, 
[J. W. Powell, in charge,] 
Washington, D. C, November 1, 1878. 
Sir : I have tire honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of Octo- 
ber 3, a.s follows : 

"Department of the Interior, 

" Washington, October 3, 1878. 
"Maj. J. W. Powell, 

"Geologist in charge of the U. S. Geographical 

"and Geological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region : 
" Sir: I transmit herewith a copy of a letter from Prof. O. C. Marsh, acting president 
of the National Academy of Sciences, relative to that provision of the act making 
appropriation for sundry civil expenses of the government for the year ending June 30, 
1879, which requires the academy to take into consideration certain matters relating to 
the surveys of a scientific character under the War or the Interior Department, and 
the surveys of the Land Office. 

"I will thank you to furnish to this department a report upon the subject of said 
letter, giving such information as you may think will be of value to the committee of 
the academy. 

"Very respectfully, 

"C. SCHURZ, 

" Secretary. " 

And also the letter from Prof. O. C. Marsh, transmitted with the above, as follows : 

"Yale College, New Haven, Conn., 

" September 28, 1878. 
"To the Hon. Secretary of the Interior: 

" Sir : Referring to 'An act making appropriation for sundry civil expenses,' &c. 
(H. R. 5130), Forty-fifth Congress, second session, relative to the consideration by the 
National Academy of Sciences, of ' all surveys of a scientific character under the War 
or Interior Department and the surveys of the Land Office,' I have the honor to say 
that a committee of the academy has been appointed and is now ready to consider the 
snbiect. 

"I respectfully ask, therefore, that a communication may be addressed to me from 
your office conveying any information in regard to the plans and wishes of your de- 
partment as to the above surveys you may think proper to lay before the academy. 

'"The next meeting of the academy will begin November 5, 1878, and an early reply, 
therefore, is desirable. 

'• Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"O. C. MARSH, 
"Acting President of the National Academy of Sciences." 

The letter was forwarded from my office and reached me in Utah, where I was en- 
gaged in field work, on the 14th of October. I immediately returned to Washington 
for the purpose of making reply. 

The clause of the appropriation bill, referred to in the letter of Professor Marsh, is 
as follows : 

'■And the National Academyof Sciences is hereby required, at their next meeting, to 
take into consideration the methods and expenses of conducting all surveys of a scien- 
tific character under the War or Interior Department, and the surveys of the Land 
Office, and to report to Congress, as soon thereafter as may be practicable, a plan for 
surveying and mapping the Territories of the United States on such general system 



as will, in their judgment, secure the best results at the least possible cost, and also 
to recommend to Congress a suitable plan for the publication and distribution of the 
reports, maps, and documents, and other results of said surveys." 

In reply to the above request, I beg leave to make the following statement : 

The methods of conducting the surveys carried on under my direction, and the 
expense thereof, are set forth in the accompanying document s, marked _A___fl,-nd B, 
as succinctly as I am able to present them. I beg leave, therefore, to refer the com- 
mittee to the same, as my answer to the first part of the inquiry. Should the com- 
mittee, however, desire a more elaborate and detailed reply, I shall be pleased to fur- 
nish it ; or should it be deemed wise to ask specific questions relating to any portion 
of the work under my direction, I shall consider it an honor to reply as thoroughly and 
explicitly as I am able. I should consider it a privilege to explain to the committee, 
with the fullest detail, the methods of research pursued in my work, and should be 
pleased to lay before its members for examination the system employed in the geograph- 
ical work, with instruments, systematic records, field sketches, &c, embracing the 
methods of measuring base lines, extending the triangulation therefrom, determina- 
tion of altitudes, sketching the topography, construction of charts, &c, and the 
geological methods of research, embracing the succession and geographical distribu- 
tion of the sedimentary groups, the character and distribution of the crystalline schists, 
the characteristics, classification, and distribution of the extravasated rocks, the 
methods of research and representation employed in the study of structural geology, 
&c. ; and also the researches in North American ethnology, embracing linguistics, 
sociology, mythology, arts, &c, together with the geographical distribution of the 
tribes; and, finally, the limited studies made in natural history. The greater part of 
the work is yet unpublished, and for a proper understanding of what has been done 
it would be necessary to thoroughly examine the materials in my office. 

In relaton to the next part of the inquiry, i. e., as to "a plan for surveying and 
mapping the Territories of the United States on such general system as will * * * 
secure the best results at the least possible cost, " I beg to submit the following sug- 
gestions : 

For the past ten or twelve years different parties have been engaged in this work, 
pursuing diverse methods and producing diverse results. Four distinct autonomous 
geographical and geological surveys have been carried on simultaneously. In my 
answer to the resolution of inquiry from the House of Representatives, made on mo- 
tion of the Hon. J. D. C. Atkins, chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, relat- 
ing to the same subject, I made certain statements in my final remarks to which I 
beg to call attention. ( Vide accompanying document marked B, being House of Rep- 
resentatives Ex. Doc, 80, Forty-fifth Congress, second session.) 

The closing paragraph is as follows : 

"In view of all these facts, it is manifest that the work should be unified and a 
common system adopted. This may be accomplished either by act of Congress, by 
executive direction, or by placing the work under one management." 

I am still of the opinion that the unification which I advocated at that time would 
be wise ; and desire to present additional reasons for the opinion then expressed. 

I. The geographical work should be based on a transcontinental triangulation on a 
comprehensive plan, and carried on with proper refinement. With the work divided 
as it has been for the past ten years this is practically impossible. No one organiza- 
tion with its small appropriation can make the necessary outlay of money for this 
work without swallowing up the whole or greater part of its funds, and thus it would 
be prevented from doing other work. All of the scientific surveys which have been 
carried on for the past ten years are practically "in the air," because this funda- 
mental condition of accuracy has been neglected. 

II. For the hypsometric work transcontinental lines of levels should be established 
to which all the base stations in the field should be related by connecting lines. With 
the multiplicity of surveys and the small appropriations for each, it is impossible to 
have this work done, as it is impossible to have the transcontinental triangulation 
made. 

III. All that portion of hypsometric work which is done by means of the barometer 
is to a greater or less extent inaccurate, from the fact that the barometric constants 
for North America have not been properly determined. The tables now in use are 
based on observations made at Saint Bernard and Geneva under climate 1 conditions 
widely (littering from those that obtain in this country. ( Vide Williamson "On the Use 
of the Barometer," p. 220, etseq.; Pettie and Whitney, "Contributions to Barometric 
Hypsometry," in Report of the Geological Survey of California, and Lieut. Wm. L. 
Marshall, ''Meteorology and Hypsometry," Appendix G l,i>. :>?<» ofEeport of the Chief 
of Engineers, 1876-77, vol. II, part :i and "Results in Barometric Hypsometry," p. 
515 of Report of the United States Geographical and Geological Surveys West of the 
100th Meridian, vol. II. A large; amount of material on this subject has been collected 
by the survey under the direction of the writer, but remains unpublished.) 

Series of observations must be made at suitable longitudes, latitudes, and alti- 
tudes within the territory to be surveyed, and from the data thus collected the tables 



5 

must be prepared. As each survey is financially weak, and lias but au uncertain 
tenure of existence, it is practically impossible to have these observations made. 

The economic importance of hypsometric work is very great because of its relation 
to the agricultural industries of the country. In more than four-tenths of the United 
States agriculture is dependent upon irrigation, and in all of this region the hypso- 
metric relations or relative levels of the land to adjacent streams by which they are 
to be fertilized must be determined. Iu all that vast area not a single farm can b« 
cultivated or a site for an agricultural field selected without first determining by lev- 
eling the practicability of reaching it with water. While the government will not 
be expected to run lines of levels for individual farmers, yet in the selection of lands 
to be surveyed and sold these facts cannot be neglected. 

The hypsometric methods now in use by the several surveys are entirely inadequate 
to meet these practical demands. 

IV. The area to be mapped is very great. The expense of cartography is an im- 
portant part of the total expense of the work. Each party being desirous of exhibit- 
ing the greatest results for the appropriations made, has endeavored to curtail the ex- 
pense of cartography as far as possible. For this reason the maps have been repro- 
duced by cheap methods to serve temporary purposes, and the future needs of the 
country have been ignored. To some extent, especially by Clarence King and by my- 
self, the subject of cartography has been investigated and experiments made for the 
purpose of determining methods best adapted to the wants of the country, considering 
the magnitude of the work and the facts to be represented. But because each survey 
Las been financially weak these experiments have not been carried to the extent 
which the importance of the subject demands, and we are thus adopting cartographic 
methods imperfect and ephemeral. 

A system of cartography should be used that will best represent the characteristics 
of the topography and convey the greatest amount of practical information, limited 
only by considerations of cost. The maps thus constructed should be placed upon 
materials that are enduring, as all the natural topographic features are themselves 
enduring, so that thereafter the plates could be used by the government to meet all 
wants that may arise from time to time. 

Finally the prosecution of the work by a number of autonomous organizations is 
illogical, unscientific, and in violation of the fundamental law of political economy, 
namely, the law of the division of labor. The work should be unified or integrated 
by placing it under one general management, and the division of labor should have a 
scientific basis; that is, it should be . differentiated so that there shall be a division 
for geographical work embracing all methods of mensuration in latitudes, longi- 
tudes and altitudes, absolute and relative ; and the representation of the results in 
appropriate charts. There should be a department of geology embracing all purely 
scientific subjects relating to geological structure and distribution, and practical sub- 
jects relating to mining and agricultural industries. If ethnology, botany, and 
zoology are to be embraced in the general scientific survey, each subject should have 
but a single organization, with a single head subordinated to the general plan. In 
such a way only can a proper integrated and differentiated organization be made. The 
present multiplication of organizations for all of these purposes is unscientific, ex- 
cessively expensive, and altogether vicious; preventing comprehensive, thorough, 
and honest research, stimulating unhealthy rivalry, and leading to the inoduction of 
sensational and briefly popular rather than solid and enduring results. 

By the act of Congress the National Academy of Sciences is instructed to consider 
also the surveys of the public lands. These surveys have been carried on for nearly a 
century ; primarily, for the purpose of parceling the lands in such a manner that titles 
to definite portions may be conveyed from the government to individuals; seconda- 
rily, that the value and characteristics of the lands may be determined. During the 
time in which these surveys have been in jnogress about 1,138,000 square miles have 
been surveyed, at a cost of a little more than $23,000,000, or at an average cost of a 
lift]'- more than $20 per square mile. In the prosecution of these surveys an attempt 
has been made to establish the boundaries of legal subdivisions, and maps have been 
constructed of every township surveyed, representing with greater or less accuracy 
the topographic features of the same, and each surveyor was required to note the 
character of the timber and certain facts relating to economic geology. For this work 
surveyors have been paid by contract for work done, instead of by salary for time em- 
ployed. In pursuing this work the geography and geology of the country has been 
studied to some extent, but not with sufficient accuracy and thoroughness for scien- 
tific or general economic purposes. The only substantial result accruing therefrom 
has been the parceling of the lands by establishing boundaries, and even this has been 
imperfectly done by reason of certain faulty methods inherent in a system adopted 
i. early a century ago. Corners have been marked by planting wooden stakes where 
these were conveniently found, and in other regions, as the prairies, great plains, and 
naked valleys of the Rocky Mountain region, they have been marked by small heaps 
of earth, which could be easily raked together at the corners of subdivisions. But 
wooden stakes soon decay and heaps of earth arc soon washed away by storms. In 



6 

timber districts the lines are further marked by blazing the trees adjacent thereto, and 
the plats made by the surveyors were supposed to be additional means of identifying 
the boundary -lines. To a large extent, however, these added securities have proved 
unavailing. Marked trees are soon destroyed, and as no thorough topographic sys- 
tem was adopted the charts were practically valueless ; hence the surveys of the pub- 
lic lands made for the purpose of parcelling the same have been of such a character 
that a heritage of litigation relating to boundary-lines has been bequeathed to pos- 
terity, ever increasing with the enhancing value of lands. For scientific purposes the 
geographic results exhibited on the charts made by the surveyors have been valueless 
for the following reasons: 

Latitudes, longitudes, and altitudes have never been determined. The surveys have 
been proceeded from a number of initial points by north and south, and east and west 
lines. The geographic co-ordinates of these initial points were never determined, and 
no scientific checks were made in extending the lines therefrom. 

The running of a straight line is an engineering feat of the greatest difficulty, and 
no proper precautions were taken to secure even approximately straight lines. In this 
manner, as the surveys proceeded from the several initial points, until they met, it 
was found that no two systems could be made to agree, and it became necessary to 
make connections by irregular fractional subdivisions, thus entailing on the land sys- 
tem a new set of difficulties. And, hnally, in the topography and cartography no gen- 
eral system was adopted; the work has been given out by contract to deputy survey- 
ors and even sublet ; thus a large number of persons have been engaged annually in 
the work, each person adopting a system of his own, it being necessary only to com- 
ply with certain general regulations established by law. 

Latitudes, longitudes, altitudes, and topographic positions were neither established 
absolutely nor relatively with accuracy, and the cartographic methods have been so 
diverse and imperfect that no general maps of value can be constructed from the vast 
number of township maps on tile in the Land Office. For further information on this 
subject I refer to a little volume published by the Land Office, entitled "Instructions 
to Surveyors-General," and the "Report of the Hon. S. S. Burdett, Commissioner of the 
General Land Office, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1875," and also to the " Report 
of the Hon. J. A. Williamson, Commissioner of the General Land Office, for the fiscal 
year ending June 30, 1877," copies of which are transmitted herewith, and in which 
the statements pertinent to the subjects in hand are marked. 

The system of land surveys as originally adopted was, in many respects, wise, but 
it was never faithfully executed, from the fact that after its first inception it never had 
proper scientific supervision. From an early date, instead of having a single head it 
has a multiplicity of heads ; that is, there has been a number of surveyors-general (at 
present there are sixteen) working independently of each other, and practically auton- 
omous. These surveyors-general do not directly conduct the surveys, but are law offi- 
cers, intermediate between the General Land Office and the deputy surveyors who do 
the work, and hence are not chosen as experts, for their scientific qualifications, but 
are selected for their legal acquirements and administrative talents. For this reason it 
has happened that the system of surveys has not kept pace with modern science, and 
has scarcely been improved during the time (the greater part of a century) in which 
it has been in operation. It has failed to meet the economic and scientific wants of the 
country from the fact that it has lacked intelligent supervision on the one hand, and, 
on the other, that it has been carried out by a great number of deputy surveyors whose 
personal interests were opposed to accurate and scientific work, as they performed their 
labors under contract. A list of the initial points from which surveys have been made 
will be found in the accompanying document, marked U C." 

There yet remains to be surveyed an area of about 1,704,000 square miles, exclusive 
of Alaska, and it is of paramount importance that the surveys of thepublic lands shall 
hereafter be conducted in such a manner as to avoid the evils above referred to. 

There are on file iu the General Land Office more than 35,000 manuscript maps, elab- 
orately constructed on a scale of two miles to the inch, and representing the topo- 
graphic features of more than 1,000,000 square miles of territory. Accompanying these 
maps is an equal number of manuscript reports relating to the geological and physical 
characteristics of the areas surveyed, the whole costing the government more than 
$23,000,000; and they are all of imperfect value in the parceling of the lands, of little 
or no value in the consideration of economic questions relating to the public lands, 
and absolutely valueless for scientific purposes. 

These records of the Land Office furnish a gigantic illustration of the evils of badly- 
directed scientific work. A large corps of surveyors lias been employed for nearly a 
century. Forests, prairies, plains, and mountains have been traversed in many direc- 
tions; millions of miles have been run with compass and chain ; chart after cbart has 
been constructed with great labor ; folio on folio has been placed among the national 
archives, containing facts incoherent and worthless ; and the record has been made 
that lure are trees, t here swamps, and yonder glades ; that the lands surveyed are level, 
hilly, or rolling; that sandstones are found here, limestones there, or granite else- 
where; and so the records of useless facts have been piled up from year to year until 



they are buried in their own mass. That all of this labor and expense has been lost to 
science, may well challenge the attention of the learned men of America, and when 
properly understood, they will not be slow in demanding a reform. 

It is scarcely necessary to indicate to a scientific body a method by which these evils 
can be corrected in the future. There is one, and but one, adequate and inexpensive 
method. The initial points should be connected by a triangulation with a system of 
short base-lines accurately measured, the latter having their latitudes, longitudes, al- 
titudes, and azimuths properly determined, and from the geodetic points established 
in this triangulation all the lines of the parceling surveys should be checked, and the 
datum points in the parceling surveys should be marked with imperishable monuments 
of stone or metal. By such a plan the boundary lines of parcels could be accurately 
and permanently fixed and easily identified. The corner-posts would not be immedi- 
ately destroyed by natural agencies, and if lost by accident or removed by design, they 
could be easily and accurately replaced, and the whole basis of the system, in its geo- 
detic points and triangles, would remain while hills and mountains stand and the stars 
shine. In this manner a proper parceling of the public lands would be made, and at 
the same time all other scientific purposes of a survey would be subserved. 

It is quite unnecessary to represent to a learned body the importance of a good trig- 
onometric survey for scientific purposes. It is rather of its utilitarian purposes that I 
would here speak, and especially of its importance to our system of surveys of the 
public lands. Not only would the use of a primary triangulation as the basis of land- 
surveying remedy the principal defects of that system, but it would be a means of 
great economy in the final cost, and would have the immense advantage of rendering 
much of those surveys both unnecessary and inexcusable, and would distribute the 
cost over the coming years in a manner least burdensome upon the revenue. 

The relatively small proportion of the land remaining in the possession of the gov- 
ernment which is useful for industrial purposes has had, in the last few years, the 
etf'ect of locating the incoming population of the far West upon scattered districts 
where water can be found, and these settlements are separated from each other by 
mountains or by broad expanses of barren plains which, for many years to come, will 
not be sold nor turned to any economic use except in very rare instances. And yet 
a survey is as essential to the title of the homesteader of Wyoming and Idaho as to 
the old settlers of Ohio and Illinois. To make that survey by present methods, and 
in conformity with existing statutes, it is necessary to run lines from standard meridi- 
ans and parallels or from established township corners, and these lines must be ' ' marked 
and measured" before the contractor can receive his payment. Connections of isolated 
districts must thus be made through a series of township corners. The futility of 
marking such corners wherever they may chance to fall in the mountains and deserts, 
by such perishable devices as are authorized by law, needs no remark. The inaccu- 
racy of such measurements in a difficult country is a consequence equally obvious. 
The whole system is one which from the peculiar character of the western region ren- 
ders necessary a very large amount of surveying which serves no useful purpose except 
to connect isolated districts and such connections are from the nature of the case 
grossly inaccurate. To such a method the trigonometric method stands in the strong- 
est possible contrast. By a judicious selection of natural and conspicuous geodetic 
stations scattered over the land, all superfluous surveying may be entirely avoided. 
The latitudes and longitudes of such stations being once determined, they may be- 
come the datum-points or origins of local surveys of all districts which lie in their 
vicinity. But while a trigonometric survey, if conducted with proper accuracy, is in 
one sense an expensive undertaking, there may be danger of overestimating its rela- 
tive cost. It could not be more expensive than the present land surveys which yield 
such poor and perishable results. But even here it is well to remember that a trian- 
gulation, with a secondary and tertiary system of triangles, need not be at once ex- 
tended over the entire domain, nor even over a very large proportion of it. Popula- 
tion in the far West has shown a tendency to cluster around a number of localities of 
relatively small extent, while the greater portion of the region is unoccupied. The 
primary points once determined in a few narrow belts, it will be practicable to 
expand a net of inferior triangles over those localities which need surveys while the 
barren wastes may be left until a survey is needed for them. It will always be prac- 
ticable to regulate the extent of the triangulation, and to adapt it to wants as they 
arise. 

The greatest economy of this method would arise from the fact that it would dis- 
pense with the unnecessary work of the present land surveys. Recalling here the 
tact that under the present method the work is done by contract, it obviously becomes 
the pecuniary interest of the deputy to survey as much land as practicable provided 
it will yield him a profit. To a considerable extent he has discretion in the selection 
of the districts which he has to survey, and being governed solely by considerations 
ot profit, naturally, and quite lawfully, selects such lands as can be surveyed at least 
cost to himself without regard to their present or even probable occupation by set- 
tlers. Many millions of acres have thus been parceled without the slightest neces- 
sity, the lands being worthless, and the landmarks have been allowed to perish, and 



8 

all useful results have perished with them. We have but to contrast this prodigal and 
wasteful method with the permauent aud ever-useful results of a triangulation in 
order to recognize the immense advantage of the latter. 

Throughout the Rocky Mountain region, a great portion of the values of the public 
domain subsist in the mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, &c. The surveys of these 
mining lands are carried on by methods even more poorly adapted to reasonable re- 
quirements than those of the agricultural lands. The tracts of mineral lands con- 
taining ores of precious metals, titles to which are conveyed from the general govern- 
ment to individuals, are surveyed by methods so inaccurate that the surveys themselves 
are of little value in identifying parcels, and in the courts the records of such surveys 
are of no value, parol evidence being necessarily substituted ; for in general the values 
of the mines exist within narrow horizontal limits and should resurveys be made fol- 
lowing original records it would always be probable that sites thus obtained would 
not coincide with the original one but would be in part or in whole established on 
other grounds. Under the law the surveys of mineral claims are connected either 
with the corner posts of the land surveys or with "mineral monuments," and this con- 
nection is made by hues run with compass and chain, and it should be remembered 
that the mines are in the mountains where the use of these instruments involves the 
greatest expense and secures the least accuracy. To this primitive and almost barba- 
ric system of surveying the mineral lands may be attributed a. large part of the dis- 
astrous litigation in which the mines of the Rocky Mountain region are involved. 

I need scarcely say to a scientific body that such surveys are so inaccurate as to be 
of no value whatever in determining the position of the claims themselves. It thus 
happens that when in a mineral district many claims have been surveyed, an attempt 
is made in the surveyor-general's office, or in the General Land Office in Washington, 
to plot a number of such claims on a common chart, the several surveys are found to 
be inconsistent Avith each other, and overlap or fail to* connect. The claims themselves 
should be plotted on properly constructed topographic charts and be connected with 
each other by triangulation, and the whole connected with the general system of tri- 
angulation which must be carried over the country. 

Every mineral district should have a thorough topographic survey, and at conven- 
ient points throughout the district monuments should be erected and their absolute 
and relative positions determined by fixing their angular relations to each other and 
to the geodetic points of the general triangulation, and thus every miner would have 
an accurate, simple, and inexpensive method by which the position of his claim could 
be fixed. But such properly constructed charts necessary for the identification of min- 
eral claims and the proper recording of conveyances would meet all other wants. 
It would be a sufficient guide to the engineer, for all general purposes, in the location 
of highways and hydraulic works, and a sufficient map for all scientific purposes. If 
the work were properly done in the first instance, so as to be sufficient for all reason- 
able requirements, no duplication of the work would be necessary for any other pur- 
pose. 

In the administration of the Land Office, there are important facts that should here 
be considered. The following classes of lauds are recognized under the laws : 

1. Agricultural lands or lands valuable for agriculture without irrigation or drain- 
age. 

2. Swamp lands. 

3. Irrigable lands ; lands valuable for agriculture only with irrigation and desig- 
nated in the law as " desert lands."' 

4. Timber lands. 

5. Live-oak and cedar lands. 

6. Mineral-vein lands, or lands containing veins or lodes of gold, cinnabar, copper, 
lead, &c. 

7. Placer lands, or lands containing placer mines of the precious metals. 

8. Coal lands. 

( Fide Revised Statutes of the United States, 1878, title 32, chap. 6 ; title 32, chap. 
10, sees. 2458-2468, inclusive; and title 32, chap. 11, sees. 2478-2490, inclusive. 

United States Statutes at Large, vol. 19, chap. 107. 

Statutes of the United States passed at the second session of the Forty-fifth Congress, 
elm p. 151.) 

An examination of the laws thus cited will show that the classes of lands mentioned 
above are therein recognized, and in the administration of the laws relating to these 
lands those- belonging to each specific class must be determined ; but no adequate pro- 
vision is made for securing an accurate classification, and to a large extent the laws 
are inoperative, or practically void; for example, coal lands should be sold at ten or 
twenty dollars per acre, but the department having no means of determining what 
lands belong to this class, titles to coal lands are usually obtained under the provision 
of statutes that relate to lands of other classes; that is, by purchashing at $1.25 per 
acre, or by homestead or pre-emption entry. An examination of the laws will exhibit 
this fact, that for the classification contemplated therein a thorough survey is neces- 
sary, embracing the geological and physical characteristics of the entire public domain. 



The only provision under the General Land Offiee for such a survey is contained in the 
" Instructions to the surveyors-general" (vide p. 18, and paragraphs under the head of 
" Summary of ohjects and data to he noted.") In the performance of those duties the 
deputy surveyors, who do the work under contract, fail entirely to provide the facts 
necessary to the proper administration of the laws, and, in practice, the facts upon 
which transactions in the department are hased are obtained not from experts em- 
ployed as government officers and competent to perform the task, hut on affidavits 
made by the parties interested, or by persons selected by them, and the history of the 
Land Office abundantly exhibits the fact that States and individuals have to a large 
extent obtained titles to lands from the general government under fraudulent repre- 
sentations. 

From the above statement, it will be apparent that a thorough survey of the geology 
and physical classification of the entire domain is necessary to the administration of 
the laws relating thereto. 

The importance of such a survey in the industrial interests of the country requires 
brief mention. The greater part of the lands yet remaining in the possession of the 
general government either needs protection on the one hand from overflow, because 
of excessive humidity, or irrigation on the other, because of excessive aridity. The 
utilization of all such lands depends upon the correct solution of great engineering- 
problems. Large portions of the public domain on the Gulf coast are swamp lands; 
the great river valleys of the South are flood-plains, which must be protected from the 
waters which periodically flow over them; vast areas of swamp and lakelet lands 
exist in the region of the great lakes that must be redeemed by drainage ; the western 
half of the United States is comparatively arid; in more than four-tenths of our 
national area, exclusive of Alaska, agriculture is dependent upon irrigation, and here 
the lauds are to be used only by the utilization of rivers and minor streams that are 
chiefly fed by the snoAV-fields of the Eocky Mountains. The rapid migration, which has 
been greater during the past ten years than in any similar portion of the history of the 
United States, is pushing, iu middle latitudes, quite to the verge of possible agricul- 
ture without irrigation, and soon all the lands in the humid and subhurnid region 
belonging to the general government will be exhausted, and future settlers on public 
domain will be compelled to resort to the lands to be drained or to the lands to be irri- 
gated. On the Floridian peninsula, millions of acres, valuable for the growth of sea- 
island cotton or sugar, can be redeemed by the drainage of Okechobee Lake ; on the 
Gulf coast, millions of acres of swamp-land can be redeemed by protecting them from 
tide-water ; in the great flood-plains of the South, millions of acres of the richest land 
of the continent can be redeemed by protecting them from periodic river floods ; in 
the region of the great lakes, millions of acres can be redeemed by the drainage of the 
swamp and small lakes ; and in the Rocky Mountain region, very many millions of 
acres of land can be redeemed by spreading the rivers over the plains and valleys. 
Some of the engineering problems thus indicated have important mutual relations. 
The time must soon come when all the waters of the Missouri will be spread over the 
great plains, and the bed of the river will be dry. A large part of the Arkansas must 
also be taken out to fertilize the lands adjacent to its upper course, and still farther 
south the waters of the upper ramifications of the Red River must be used. The util- 
ization of these waters flowing during the season of irrigation, and the storage of the 
surplus, will have an important effect upon the Mississippi River, and will, to some 
extent at least, relieve the great valley plains of the Mississippi, extending from the 
mouth of the Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico, from the devastating floods to which it is 
periodically subject. It has been pointed out, and it is well known to the scientific 
men of the country, that the present system of protecting these lands by levees is not 
only excessively expensive but entirely inadequate, and it has been further shown 
that it is practicable to redeem these lands by the storage of the waters. ( Vide Ellet : 
Physical Geography Mississippi Valley. Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, 
Vol. II.) But if the excess of waters can be used for irrigation a double purpose will 
be accomplished, and if the relief thus obtained is quantitatively insufficient, a thor- 
ough investigation of the subject should be made, for the purpose of determining what 
additional measures can be adopted that will be efficient and economic. 

Again, in the arid region of the United States; which is more than four-tenths of the 
whole area, as had been stated, but a comparatively small portion can be redeemed by 
irrigation, and what remains is not of much value. "" It is, considering the wants of the 
country, in the main bountifully supplied with timber, but the timber is not distributed 
on or adjacent to the agricultural lands; it is found on the high plateaus and mount- 
ains where climatic conditions make agriculture impossible. Between the elevated 
timber regions and the irrigable lands adjacent to the streams are broad stretches of 
plain, valley, hill, and mountain-lands valuable to some extent for grazing purposes. 
These physical characteristics of the country demand further investigation, and the 
classification of the lands of the public domain now involved in the laws relating 
thereto must necessarily in the immediate future be somewhat enlarged. For a more 
thorough exposition of this subject, I beg leave to refer you to my report on the " Lands 
of the Arid Region of the United States," copies of which I transmitted to the vice-pres- 



10 

ident of the National Academy of Sciences September 24, with the request that the 
same be distributed among the members of the committee. 

The greater part of the remaining public domain is in the far West. The immediate 
incentives to its settlement are the mines of precious metals found in its mountains. 
It is a region of vast and inexhaustible wealth, and gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, lead, 
iron, and coal abound. In the State of Arkansas and the Gulf States east of the Mis- 
sissippi River, where important portions of the public domain are found, the mountains 
are great repositories of mineral wealth. In all of these regions a geological survey is 
necessary not alone to the proper administration of the Laud Office, but it is of vast 
importance and of great value to the general government and to the people of the 
United States by properly exhibiting the character and extent of our mineral resources. 

In the statements thus briefly made, I have attempted to indicate by a few illustra- 
tions the character of the scientific x>roblems involved in the epiestion submitted by 
Congress to the Academy of Sciences, and the more important economic considera- 
tions that inhere in the subject. 

From the statement above, though briefly and imperfectly made, it will be clear 
that a proper scientific survey embracing the geography of the public domain with the 
parceling of the lands, and the geology with all the physical characteristics connected! 
therewith, is necessary for the following reasons : 

First, to secure an accurate parceling of the public lands and enduring boundary 
lines. 

Second, for the proper administration of the laws relating to the public lands. 

Third, for a correct and full knowledge of the agricultural and mineral resources of 
the, lands ; 

And fourth, for all purposes of abstract science. 

These considerations are ample to secure from the National Legislature all necessary 
financial endowments for the prosecution of the surveys. It should be remembered 
that the statesmen of America who compose and have composed our National Legisla- 
ture have been not averse to the endowment of scientific research when such research 
is properly related to the industries of the people. The verity of this statement will be 
more apparent by the consideration of thel following facts: 

For scientific work carried on under the direction of the War Department, the fol- 
lowing appropriations have been made : 

River and harbor improvements: 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876 $5, 900, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877 4, 550, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 8, 200, 000 

Signal-service: 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876 507, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877 349,000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878 326, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 404, 000 

Lake surveys: 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876 150,000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877 100,000 

For the fiscal year ending June30, 1878 110,000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 99, 000 

In addition to the direct appropriations mentioned above, large indirect appropria- 
tions were made in the bills providing for the support of the Army. In some eases 
the indirect appropriations were even larger than the direct. 

For scientific work carried on under the direction of the Treasury Department, the 
following appropriations have been made: 

Coast Survey : 

For the fiscal year'ending June 30, 1876 $717, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877, (including deficiency) 626,000 

For the fiscal year ending .June 3D. 1878 468. 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 547, 000 

Weights and Measures: 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876 7.600 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877 9.700 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878 4. 700 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 5,000 

Light-House Board : 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876 2,750. 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877 2,470, 000 

For the fiscal year ending dune 30, 1878 2, 130.000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, L879 1,970,000 



11 

For scientific work carried on under the direction of the Navy Department, the fol- 
lowing appropriations have been made: 

Naval Observatory : 

For the fiscal vear ending June 30, 1876 $20, 500 

For the fiscal vear ending June 30, 1877 21, 300 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878 28,000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 23, 100 

Nautical Almanac : 

For the fiscal vear ending June 30, 1876 24,500 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877 19, 500 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878 19, 500 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 22, 500 

For scientific work carried on under the direction of the Interior Department the 
following appropriations have heen made: 
General Land Office: 

For the fiscal year ending June 30. 1869 $535, 000 

For the fiscal vear ending June 30, 1870, (including deficiency) 575, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1871 790, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1872, (including deficiency) 790, 000 

For the fiscal, vear ending June 30, 1873 1, 248, 000 

For the fiscal vear ending June 30, 1874 1, 365, 000 

For the fiscal vear ending June 30, 1875 1 , 238, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876 1, 097, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877, (including deficiency) 550, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878 474, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 535,000 

The expenditures under the Land Office have heen given for ten years, from the fact 
that for the past two or three years the appropriations made under this head have 
heen greatly diminished. This diminution was due to the fact that it had come to he 
recognized by Congress that the surveys were carried on by faulty and wasteful 
methods. 

The items mentioned above are only approximations, as the writer is not able to 
state exactly what proportion of the office expenditures of the General Land Office 
should be included under this head. One-fifth of the general expense of maintaining 
the office has been included. 

For scientific work carried on under the direction of the United States Commission 
Fish and Fisheries, the following appropriations have been made: 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1876 ,$53, 500 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1877 36, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1878 51, 000 

For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 51, 000 

From the several reports made in answer to the resolution of the Hon. J. D. C. Atkins, 
it appears that the following has been the total cost of the different geographical 
and geological surveys that have been in progress of late years, up to June 30, 1878, 
to which is added the appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 : 

United States Geological Exploration of the 40th Parallel, under Clarence King : 

Amount expended up to June 30, 1878 (1868-1872) $386, 711 

United States Surreys and Explorations west of the 100fA Meridian, under Lieut. Geo. 

M. Wheeler: 

Amount expended up to June 30, 1878 (1869-1878) $499, 316 

Appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 50, 000 

United States Geographical and Geological Survey of the Territories, under Prof. F. V. 

JJayden : 

Amount expended up to June 30, 1878 (1867-1878) $615, 000- 

Appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 75, 000 

United Stales Geographical and Geological Survey of the Pocky Mountain Jtegion, 
under J. IV. 1'oieell : 

Amount expended np to June 30, 1878 (1871-1878) $209. 000 

Appropriation for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879 50, 000 



12 

The above statement of appropriations does not include those made for the Agricul- 
tural Department, where scientilic investigations are pursued to some extent, nor the 
many temporary appropriations such as those made for the Polaris expedition, and for 
investigations relating to steel and iron. It will appear from the above that the di- 
rect appropriations made for great national work involving scientilic research amount 
to more than eight and one-half millions of dollars annually ; and should we include 
the indirect appropriations, the amount would be considerably more than ten millions 
of dollars. 

Much of this great amount has not been given directly for scientific research, but 
all the work performed under these expenditures has involved scientific investigation, 
and there have resulted therefrom many valuable contributions to knowledge ; thus 
scientific research in many fields has had munificent endowment. 

These amounts have been appropriated directly for the purpose of making many of 
the great industries of the people at large more remunerative and secure, but the history 
of the legislation connected therewith and the preliminary discussions in the National 
Legisl ature abundantly show that the statesmen of the country have not been luimindful 
of the scientific results which might accrue therefrom, but, on the contrary, such results 
have received due consideration and have been potent in securing the advocacy of many 
wise and able men. In submitting a plan to Congress for the organization of a geo- 
graphical and geological survey, these facts should not be ignored. The survey 
should be allied to the great industrial interests of the country, those relating to agri- 
culture and mining being of greatest magnitude, and affecting the largest number of 
people. 

A survey organized for the purposes which I have indicated will always receive 
ample support because the results of its work will increase the national wealth, and 
beneficially affect the largest proportion of the people. But a geographical and geo- 
logical survey divorced from these economic considerations, and devoted to research 
valuable chiefly for abstract science, must always be weak and have an uncertain ten- 
ure of existence ; for in the efforts made to reduce the expenses of administration and 
drainage on national revenue such expenditures would be the first to be cut off. A 
geographical and geological survey, to be permanent, vigorous, and efficient, should include tlte 
surrey of the public lands and he subsidiary thereto. 

In the execution of the trust imposed by law on the National Academy of Sciences, 
two important facts, not having direct mention in the statement above, merit atten- 
tion. 

First. Under the Coast Survey a transcontinental tri angulation is now in progress, 
and much has already been accomplished, as the Coast Survey has a very large num- 
ber of persons trained as experts in geographical science. Two such systems of trian- 
gulation are unnecessary ; the one now in progress should be made the basis of all 
future geographical work in the United States. 

Second. The Signal Service Office has already established many stations throughout 
the country for barometric observations, and these, to a large extent, can be utilized, 
both in the preparation of hypsometric tables and in the general work, and the results 
of the data collected by that office are of prime importance in considering many of the 
questions relating to land economics ; hence there should be hearty co-operation be- 
tween the Signal Service and the geological surveys. 

COST OF A GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 

The average cost of the land surveys, from the time they were instituted to the pres- 
ent, has been something more than twenty dollars per square mile. In the earlier 
years it was much less; in later much more, for obvious reasons. The mountainous 
region of the West presents many more difficulties than the plains, prairies, and level 
lands of the East. At present, these surveys cost from twenty-five to thirty dollars 
per square mile, and if the present system continues the cost must steadily increase be- 
cause of increasing difficulties. After a careful consideration of this subject, and some 
familiarity with the methods and cost of the land surveys and of the geographical and 
geological surveys of this country, and, to some extent, of those in Europe, I am of 
the opinion that all necessary geographic surveys, including the parceling of the 
lands, could be made within the expense now incurred for the land surveys. Through- 
out the western half of the United States all geographic work can be performed at a 
slight comparative cost, on account of certain physical conditions existing therein. 
Because of aridity the country is largely destitute of timber, and the presence of tim- 
ber greatly increases the cost of this work; it is also a mountainous country, where 
salient points for triangulation are abundant, and from its numerous elevations the in- 
tervening valleys are readily commanded. 

For the same reason, viz, excessive aridity, and the destitution of vegetation result- 
ing therefrom, a geological survey can be carried on at a comparatively slight cost. 
Not covered by soils and vegetation, the whole country is an open book, where geo- 
logical structure and distribution are plainly revealed, and the geologist is often able 



13 

to discover at a single glance from some eminence what in regions favored with a 
greater humidity would he found out only after weeks or even months of patient toil. 

In comparing the cost of the surveys which should he made in this country with 
those made in Europe, the diverse purposes for which these surveys are made should 
receive attention. In Europe the areas to he surveyed, in comparison with extent of 
population and national wealth, are small ; in America the areas to he surveyed, in 
comparison with the population and wealth, are great; in Europe, large standing ar- 
mies are supported, and the several governments stand ever prepared for war ; hy 
those nations which have or are executing the most elahorate surveys, the ohject is to 
prepare detailed charts of every possible battle-field within their dominion, which, in 
fact, embraces the whole area of their territory. The relation of the United States 
to adjacent nations on the continent is such that our statesmen do uot think it neces- 
sary to support a large standing army, and in the organization of a survey of the 
United States it is not necessary to consider this military purpose. We need not con- 
struct maps on a scale so elaborate as we should were we compelled to consider the 
Avhole area of the country as a succession of battle-fields ; but general charts, suffi- 
ciently elaborate for economic and scientific purposes, would serve all }rarposes of 
military strategy or the planning of campaigns. 

In discussing geographic surveys, we may divide the subject-matter into two parts : 
first, the survey and representation of the natural features, which we may call the 
nature portion of the work ; and, second, the survey and delineation of the uiore prom- 
inent works of man upon the surface of the earth; this we may call the culture por- 
tion. In the surveys made for military purposes this culture part receives relatively 
enormous attention. 

Again, in those countries of Europe where the most elaborate and expensive sur- 
veys are executed, the lands are in great part included iu large estates which belong 
to the vlanded gentry ; the few owners are all-powerful in the administration of the 
several governments, and it is considered by them that the culture of every estate, 
its forests, its fields, its orchards, its w T alls, its hedges, its ditches, its buildings, &c, 
should be a matter of public record ; that the extent, characteristics, and appurte- 
nances of every estate should be thoroughly understood, in order that the position and 
importance of every great family in the social fabric may be clearly set forth. These 
reasons for an elaborate survey do not exist in this country, and in such a work, car- 
ried on by authority of the general government, should receive but slight attention. 
The position of towns, highways, &c, should be determined and marked, but the 
vast details of culture should be omitted. The nature part of the survey is perma- 
nent ; the culture portion in this country is rapidly changing, and if municipalities, 
townships, counties, or States should desire to prosecute detailed culture-surveys, 
the proper charts representing the nature portion would be furnished ready to their 
hands. In fact, these smaller units of our political organization do engage in these 
enterprises, and many districts, townships, and counties have prepared elaborate 
charts of their areas ; usually, however, neglecting the nature portion of the work. 

In the immediate future it is probable that the farm unit in the western portion of 
our country will be changed, so that it will not be necessary to parcel the public lands 
into tracts so small as we are now doing under existing laws. This matter I have set 
forth more fully in my "Report ou the Arid Lands of the United States," to which I 
again beg to call the attention of the committee. Should this change be made, the 
expense of the land surveys will be materially diminished, and the saving therefrom 
will probably defray the cost of the geological portion of the work. In this paper, 
however, I have based my statements wholly on the facts and laws as they now 
stand. 

ZOOLOGY AXD BOTANY. 

In considering the broad question of what should be the attitude of a government 
toward scientific surveys, it is not apparent why the problem should present in this 
country any greater difficulties than those presented in Europe. It has there been 
discussed alike by statesmen and by men of science with no difference of opinion as to 
general conclusions, and among the leading minds very little as to details. It will 
probably be universally admitted that the endowment of science by governments 
should be very limited and scrupulously confined to those objects of research which 
under ordinary circumstances could not or would not be undertaken by individuals. 
This conclusion does not arise so much from considerations as to what may be the 
duty of the government as from the fact that the efforts and energies of individuals 
acting from no other stimulus than the love of science are productive of better results 
than when acting under the stimulus of government patronage. There can, however, 
be little doubt that a topographic survey and a general geologic survey are works 
which fall fully within the class which may and ought to be sustained by the govern- 
ment. It is because of the great magnitude and expense of such undertakings, which 
place them far beyond the reach of individual enterprise. 

But a government which patronizes and sustains such investigations has the unques- 



14 

tioned right to demand in return results Which shall he not merely for the "benefit of 
the scientific, the learned, and the cultured, hut for the immediate use and wants of 
all classes. It has the right to demand not only results of general value, hut those of 
utilitarian value. In a popular government like ours these considerations are even 
more forcible than in those governments where the dominant classes belong to the 
middle and higher orders. A survey in this country, sustained by the government, 
which does not closely ally itself to those utilitarian demands cannot be strong or 
permanent; nor can it face the public with demands for subsidies, as if they were 
things of right. These surveys should be both ostensibly and really so closely related 
to the practical wants of the people and of the government itself that no question 
could ever be reasonably raised against their utility or even necessity. They should 
fill in the public scheme a position analogous to those which are filled by the Coast 
Survey, Signal Service, Naval Observatory, Agricultural Department, and the Light- 
House establishment. Nor is there the slightest danger that in an organization upon 
such a basis and for such purposes the interests of science would suffer. No objection 
could be raised even by the most captious against the prosecution of any branch of 
scientific research properly co-ordinated with such a work, on the ground of its being 
too thorough or too exhaustive. Objections could commence only when such a sur- 
vey should venture beyond the strict limits of its proper purview, and it must be 
admitted that objections then could not be commenced too quickly or be made too 
strong. 

The liberality which has always been manifested in Congress and in the executive 
departments towards scientific research is a full guarantee for thex>resent at least, ane 
doubtless also for the future, that a survey restricting its action to its proper field, but 
prosecuting it to the utmost within that field, will be most liberally provided for and 
abundantly sustained. 

It would, in my opinion, be unadvisable for government to sustain and endow research 
in the various branches of zoology and botany except in a very limited way and for 
very narrow and special purposes. It may, indeed, often happen that special inquiries 
in zoology and botany may suddenly acquire the importance of questions affecting 
intimately the national welfare, like the ravages of locusts and the cotton-worm, or sub- 
jects relating to the growth aud production of forests, and these inquiries may require 
immediate prosecution at great expense. Such exceptions can always be taken into 
consideration as they arise. They do not appear to invalidate the general rule here 
suggested, that zoology and botany as branches of general science are not proper sub- 
jects of governmental patronage. Perhaps it is safe to take the ground that those sci- 
ences are injured rather than benefited by such patronage, unless it is extended in 
the most cautious and sparing manner, for assured patronage cannot be needed to 
stimulate such researches. The workers in these fields already number thousands, 
may it not be safely said tens of thousands, who neither ask nor want the slightest 
assistance from the government. It is by the numberless tributes of this great throng 
of seekers after knowledge that the great mass of facts constituting the body of those 
sciences is accumulated. It is by the master minds in that throng that the broad and 
philosophic generalizations are evoked, and of these leaders of thought every genera- 
tion furnishes its modicum. Surely no one will urge that it is the duty of government 
to add half a dozen workers to the great army of independent investigators, and no 
one will pretend that any amount of subsidizing can create a single philosopher. The 
largest amount which Congress could be asked to appropriate would bear but a trifling 
ratio to the aggregate sum expended by individuals and institutions of learning, 
either directly or indirectly, in the prosecution of zoologic and botanic research. 

Nor does it seem wise that the government should assume the responsibility and 
expense of the publication of such works. Magazines, the proceedings and transac- 
tions of learned bodies, aud books published on the same basis as ordinary literature 
will afford ample means for making known all discoveries and all generalizations in 
those branches. Scientific magazines and proceedings will never refuse the publica- 
tion of contributions, however small, provided they possess real value, and it will 
hardly be denied that if they do not possess that value they ought not to incumber the 
literature of science. Nor will means be wanting for the publication of larger and 
more comprehensive works when their value bears a due proportion to their volume 
and expense of edition. It may be laid down as a safe rule that works upon zoology 
and botany which are of sufficient value to warrant their publication will ordinarily 
find the means through existing channels, and those which are of interior value the 
government would not be justified in publishing. 

Tbe enormous bulk and chaotic character of the literature of these branches is uni- 
versally felt by naturalists to be a serious evil. These sciences arc heavily encum- 
bered and clogged by the very magnitude of their publications. It will not be sup- 
posed for a nionieiii that the entry of the government into the field as a miscellaneous 
publisher will in any manner affect existing channels of publication, but would merely 
open another tlood-gate. Nor is there any guarantee that its zoologic and botanic 
works would be more valuable in matter or more concentrated in intellectual nourish- 



15 

meiit than those which are culled and sifted by scientific periodicals and the commer- 
cial publishing-houses. 

For such reasons, I do not think it would be wise to include zoology and botany in 
the plan to be recommended to Congress. 

ETHNOLOGY. 

Unlike the subjects last mentioned, there are reasons why ethnologic researches, or 
investigations relating to the North American. Indians, should be fostered by the gen- 
eral government. The work is of great magnitude ; more than four hundred languages 
belong to about sixty different stocks having been found within the territory of the 
United States. Little of value can be accomplished in making investigations in other 
branches of the field without a thorough knowledge of the languages. Their sociol- 
ogy, mythology, arts, &c, are not properly known until the people themselves are 
understood, with their own conceptions, opinions, and motives. The subjects of study 
are remote from the centers of civilization and culture, and thus inaccessible to the 
great body of American scholars. The field of research is speedily narrowing because r 
of the rapid change in the Indian population now in progress; all habits, customs, 
and opinions are fading away; even languages are disappearing; and in a very few 
years it will be impossible to study our North American Indians in their primitive con- 
dition except from recorded history. For this reason ethnologic studies in America 
should be pushed with the utmost vigor. 

But there are other cogent reasons leading to the same conclusion. In the whole 
area of the United States, not including Alaska, there is not an important valley un- 
occupied by white men. The rapid spread of civilization since 1849 has placed the 
white man and the Indian in direct conflict throughout the whole area, and the " In- 
dian problem" is thus forced upon us, and it must be solved, wisely or unwisely. 
Many of the difficulties are inherent aud cannot be avoided, but au equal number are 
unnecessary and are caused by the lack of our knowledge relating to the Indians them- 
selves. Savagery is not inchoate civilization; it is a distinct status of society, with 
its own institutions, customs, philosophy, and religion ; and all these must necessarily 
be overthrown before new institutions, customs, philosophy, and religion can be intro- 
duced. The failure to recognize this fact has wrought inconceivable mischief in our 
management of the Indians. For the proper elucidation of this statement a volume 
is necessary, but I shall have to content myself with some brief illustrations. 

Among all the North American Indians, when in a primitive condition, personal 
property was almost unknown ; ornaments and clothing only were recognized as the 
property of the individual, and these only to a limited extent. The right to the soil 
as landed property, the right to the products of the chase, &c, was inherent in the 
gens, or elan, a body of consanguinii, a group of relatives, in some cases on the male 
side, in others on thefemale. Inheritance was never to the children of the deceased 
but always to the gens. No other crime was so great, no other vice so abhorrent, as 
the attempt of an individual to use for himself that which belonged to his gens in com- 
mon ; hence the personal rights to property recognized in civilization are intensely 
obnoxious to the Indian. He looks upon our whole system of property rights as an 
enormous evil and an unpardonable sin, for which the gods will eventually punish the 
wicked and blasphemous white man. 

From these opinions, inherent alike in their social institutions and religion, arises the 
difficulty which the government has always met in obtaining the consent of the In- 
dians to the distribution of lands among them in severalty. Tribes have been willing 
to receive lands and distribute them themselves among their gens. Among those In- 
dians who have been longest in contact with the white man, as the tribes in Indian 
Territory and Minnesota, much property has been accumulated, and with the increase 
of their wealth the question of inheritance and individual ownership has at last spon- 
taneously sprang up, and at the present time these tribes are intensely agitated on the 
subject; the parties holding radical sentiments are rapidly increasing, and it is prob- 
able that soon, among these tribes, the customs of civilization in this respect will be 
adopted Among all other tribes the ancient customs are still adhered to with tenac- 
ity, In this matter, and many others of a similar character relating to their customs 
and belief, we must either deal with the Indian as he is, looking to the slow but irre- 
sistible influence of civilization with which he is in contact to effect a change, or we 
must reduce him to abject slavery. 

The attempt to transform a savage into a civilized man by a law, a policy, an ad- 
ministration, through a great conversion, '"as in the twinkling of an eye." or in months, 
or in a few years, is an impossibility clearly appreciated by scientific ethnologists who 
understand the institutions and social condition of the Indians. This great fact has 
not in general been properly recognized iu the administration of Indian affairs. A few 
of the wiser missionaries, and a few officers of the Indian Bureau have recognized some 
of the more important facts, but in general they have been ignored. 

Again, we have usually attempted to treat with tribes through their chiefs, as if 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 



16 

021 611 368 

they wielded absolute power ; "but an Indian tribe is a pure demoeracy ; tneir cniei- 
taincy is not hereditary, and the chief is hut the representative, the speaker of the tribe, 
and can do no act by which his tribe is bound without being instructed thus to act 
in due and established form. The blunders we have made and the wrongs we have 
inflicted upon the Indians because of a failure to recognize this fact have been cruel 
and inexcusable, except on the ground of our ignorance. 

Within the United States there are about sixty radically distinct stocks of Indians. 
The history of the country shows that no coalition between tribes of different stocks 
has ever been successful ; a few have been attempted, but these have been failures. 
A knowledge of this fact, and the further knowledge of the extent of the several 
stocks as they can be classed by linguistic affinities, would be of great value in our 
administration of Indian affairs. In the late Nez Perce" war much fear was entertained 
lest the Shoshones and Pai Utes of Utah and Nevada would join with the Nez Perces 
in their revolt, and the officers of the Army, as well as those of the Indian Office, were 
exceedingly anxious in regard to this matter ; and the papers were filled with rumors 
that such a coalition had been made ; the result proved, what had been confidently 
predicted, that no such alliance could be formed, and the Shoshones and Pai Utes were 
enlisted to fight against the Nez Perce's. 

I might continue to illustrate the subject in many ways did time permit, but the 
foregoing must suffice. 

I think it will be apparent from what I have said that a thorough investigation 
of North American ethnology would be of great value in our Indian Office. The reasons 
which I have briefly set forth as influencing my opinion that the general government 
should provide for researches in this field have for many years, to a greater or less 
extent, been recognized by Congress. Twice in the history of legislation in this country 
we find that provision has been made, by appropriations, for this work, and it has 
been discontinued each time only because the character of the researches made failed 
to obtain the confidence and respect alike of statesmen and scientists. I therefore 
submit the opinion to the committee that it would be wise to recommend to Congress 
the continuation of researches in this field, and consider in so doing under what 
supervision it should be placed to secure wisdom and efficiency in the prosecution. 
Looking to this end, I would suggest that the Smithsonian Institution has accom- 
plished, in this direction, more than any or all other agencies. 

With respect to the last part of the inquiry, relating to the distribution of publica- 
tions, permit me to express the opinion that, in addition to the number of reports 
usually ordered by Congress for the use of its members, which experience has shown 
are in the main wisely distributed, an additional number should be published to be 
distributed among institutions of learning and public libraries of the United States 
and to scientific "bodies throughout the world for exchange, and a suitable number 
of extra copies to be sold at cost of paper, press-work, and binding to persons who 
desire them. This would make the publication of the surveys accessible to the scholars 
of the country at reasonable rates without detriment to the public revenues. Permit me 
to point out the fact that the present provision having the same end in view is practi- 
cally inoperative, because the work must be ordered, before publication, and hence 
before the facts in relation to it are known. 

In the above statement I have attempted to recommend no specific plan of organiza- 
tion or specific method of survey, but have attempted simply to set forth some of the 
more important economic considerations which should receive attention, believing that 
all scientific aspects will receive due consideration and that mention of the same by 
myself would be unnecessary. 

It is a matter of profoundgratification to me that Congress has submitted this im- 
portant question to the consideration of the body of learned and wise men who compose 
the National Academy of Sciences, and I am deeply impressed with the honor which has 
been conferred in calling upon me for this statement of my views. 
I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 

J. W. POWELL. 

Hon. Carl Schurz, 

Secretary of the Interior. 



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